Implementing Managed Network Services for Customers with Duplicate IP Networks

1. A system for managing a plurality of computer networks mapped to a plurality of domains, each domain comprising a plurality of network elements that are each assigned a unique IP address within the domain at a given time, and at least one of the plurality of network elements within each of at least two of the plurality of domains is assigned an identical IP address, the system comprising: a management station comprising: a plurality of interfaces established at the management station, each of the plurality of interfaces being one of a virtual interface, a physical interface or combinations thereof, each of said interfaces being assigned a different IP address; and a management application for communicating with the plurality of interfaces; wherein the management application is configured to (a) associate a first of the plurality of domains with a first of the plurality of interfaces, (b) associate a second of the plurality of domains with a second of the plurality of interfaces, and (c) transmit first data to a particular one of the first and second domains by transmitting the first data to a particular one of the first and second interfaces that is associated with the particular one of the first and second domains to which the first data is to be transmitted, wherein the management station is configured to insert in the first data a source IP address, that is specified by the management station, which is the assigned IP address of the particular one of the first and second interfaces such that no address translation is required; and a router comprising routing information to route the first data to the particular one of the first and second domains based on the source IP address in the first data, said router being in communication with the management station.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the management application is further configured to insert routing instructions in the first data.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein second data that is sent in response to the first data comprises a destination IP address which is the source IP address of the first data wherein the management station is further configured to transmit the second data to a particular one of the first and second interfaces corresponding to the destination IP address, and wherein the management application is further configured to ascertain from which of the plurality of domains the second data is transmitted based on which of the first and second interfaces receives the data.

4. A system for managing a plurality of computer networks mapped to a plurality of domains, each domain comprising a plurality of network elements that are each assigned a unique IP address within the domain at a given time, and at least one of the plurality of network elements within each of at least two of the plurality of domains is assigned an identical IP address, the system comprising a management station comprising: a plurality of interfaces established at the management station, each of the plurality of interfaces being one of a virtual interface, a physical interface or combinations thereof, each of said interfaces being assigned a different IP address; and a management application for communicating with the plurality of interfaces; wherein the management application is configured to: associate a first of the plurality of domains with a first of the plurality of interfaces; associate a second of the plurality of domains with a second of the plurality of interfaces, wherein data transmitted from one of the first and second domains to the management application comprises data that has a destination IP address, specified by the management station, which is the IP address of a particular one of the first and second interfaces such that the transmitted data is forwarded at the management station to the respective interface corresponding to the destination IP address, and wherein the management application is further configured to ascertain, without address translations from which of the plurality of domains the data is transmitted based on which of the first and second interfaces receives the forwarded data; and a router, in communication with the management station, comprising routing information to route the first data to the particular one of the first and second domains based on the source IP address in the first data.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the management application comprises a single domain manager for centrally managing the plurality of domains.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the management system comprises: a display for displaying a consolidated list of entries compiled from data provided by the at least two domains that indicates in each of the entries to which of the plurality of domains a particular entry pertains based upon the interface at which the data is received.

7. The system of claim 4 , wherein the management application comprises at least two domain managers each of which manages a different one of the plurality of domains.

8. The system of claim 4 , wherein at least two of the plurality of interfaces are virtual interfaces.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the management station further comprises an additional physical interface that is assigned an IP address, and wherein the virtual IP address assigned to one of the at least two interfaces is the IP address assigned to the additional physical interface.

10. A management system for managing a plurality of computer networks mapped to a plurality of domains, each domain comprising a plurality of network elements that are each assigned a unique IP address within the domain at a given time, and at least one of the plurality of network elements within each of at least two of the plurality of domains is assigned an identical IP address, the management system comprising: a management station comprising; a plurality of interfaces established at the management station, each interface being assigned a different IP address; and a management application for communicating with the plurality of interfaces; wherein the management application is configured to associate a first of the plurality of domains with a first of the plurality of interfaces such that the management application transmits data between the management application and the first domain exclusively through the first of the plurality of interfaces and to associate a second of the plurality of domains with a second of the plurality of interfaces such that the management application transmits data between the management application and the second domain exclusively through the second of the plurality of interfaces and the management station is configured to insert a source IP address, specified by the management station, in the data that is the assigned IP address of the particular one of the first and second interfaces such that no address translation is required; and a router, in communication with the management station, comprising routing information to route the first data to the particular one of the first and second domains based on the source IP address in the first data.

11. The management system of claim 10 , wherein the data comprises an IP data packet.

12. A method of managing a plurality of domains of computer networks at least two of which comprise a respective network element that is assigned an identical IP address, the method comprising the step of: assigning the plurality of networks to a plurality of domains at a management station such that each network element has a unique IP address within a particular domain at a given time; establishing a plurality of interfaces for managing the plurality of domains at the management system, each of the plurality of interfaces being one of a virtual interface and a physical interface and having a different IP address that is unique to the plurality of domains: associating a first of the plurality of domains with a first of the plurality of interfaces; associating a second of the plurality of domains with a second of the plurality of interfaces; transmitting first data from the management station to a particular one of the first and second domains by: transmitting the first data from the management application to a particular one of the first and second interfaces associated with the particular one of the first and second domains to which the data is to be transmitted, inserting in the first data a source IP address, specified by the management station, which is the assigned IP address of the particular one of the first and second interfaces such that no address translation is required and routing the first data in accordance with the routing information provided by a router containing said routing information to the particular one of the first and second domains based on the source IP address in the data.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising the step of: inserting routing instructions in the first data.

14. The method of claim 12 , the method further comprises: routing the first data to the domain associated with the source IP address in the first data.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising the step of: receiving second data that is sent in response to the first data and comprises a destination IP address which is the source IP address of the first data, transmitting the second data to a particular one of the first and second interfaces corresponding to the destination IP address, and ascertaining from which of the plurality of domains the data is transmitted based which of the first and second virtual interfaces receives the data.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the first data comprises a network management request, and wherein the second data comprises a response to the network management request.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising the step of: displaying management information at the management station as a consolidated list including an identifier of the domain from which the response originated and a source IP address identifying a network element in the domain from which the response originated.

18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising the step of: managing each of the plurality of domains with a separate domain manager at the management station; ascertaining from which of the plurality of the domains the received management data originated based on the particular one of the plurality of interfaces at which the response is received, and forwarding the response to the domain manager for the respective one of the plurality of domains that originated the response as ascertained by the management system based on the particular one of the plurality of interfaces at which the management data is received.

19. The method of claim 12 , further comprising the step of: managing each of the plurality of domains with a single domain manager at the management station.

20. A method of managing a plurality of computer networks at least two of which comprise a respective network element that is assigned an identical IP address, the method comprising the steps of: assigning each of the plurality of computer networks to a plurality of domains at a management station such that each network element has a unique IP address, specified by the management station, within a particular domain at a given time; establishing a plurality of interfaces for managing the plurality of domains at the management system, each interface having a different virtual IP address that is unique to the plurality of domains; associating a first of the plurality of domains with a first of the plurality of interfaces; associating a second of the plurality of domains with a second of the plurality of interfaces; and exchanging data between the management system and the plurality of domains, wherein the management application exchanges data with the first of the plurality of domains exclusively through the first interface and the management application exchanges data with the second of the plurality of domains exclusively through the second interface, by inserting a source IP address of the respective domain into said exchanged data, wherein no address translation is required.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein the data that is exchanged comprises an IP data packet transmitted by one of the plurality of network elements at one of the first and second plurality of domains.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the method further comprises the steps of: receiving at the management station the transmitted IP data packet comprising a destination IP address which is the IP address of one of the first and second interfaces, forwarding the IP data packet to the one of the interfaces specified by the IP address in the IP data packet, and ascertaining from which of the plurality of domains the received IP data packet originated based on the interface at which the IP data packet is received.

23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the received IP data packet comprises management data not transmitted in response to a request by the management application, and wherein the method further comprises: configuring at least one of the plurality of domains to transmit the management data to a specified destination IP address which is one of the plurality of IP addresses of the plurality of interfaces at the management station, and ascertaining from which of the plurality of the domains the received management data originated based on the particular one of the plurality of interfaces at which the management data is received.

24. The method of claim 20 , further comprising the step of: managing each of the plurality of domains with a single domain manager at the management station.

25. The method of claim 24 , further comprising the step of: displaying management information at the management station, including displaying an identifier of the domain from which the received data originated and a source IP address identifying a network element in the domain from which the received data originated.

26. The method of claim 20 , wherein the management application comprises a plurality of domain managers, wherein the data comprises an IP data packet, and wherein the method further comprises: associating each of the plurality of interfaces with a different one of the plurality of domain managers, managing each of the plurality of domains with the associated one of the plurality of domain managers at the management station, forwarding the IP data packet to the one of the plurality of interfaces specified by a virtual IP address in the IP data packet, and forwarding the IP data packet to the associated domain manager for the respective one of the plurality of domains that originated the IP data packet.